The Number 4 Seed University of Maryland Terrapins will face the 13th seeded Houston Cougars on Friday in the 1st-round of the NCAA Tournament in the Mid-west Bracket.

While Houston will not be suiting up Olajuwon, or Drexler on Friday; they will have Senior Guard Aubrey Coleman and his 25.6 points per game.

They also have Coach Tom Penders on the sideline, who has 648 wins in his 36 seasons as a College Head-Coach. While Penders experience will help Houston prepare, I believe he operates a running offense, which will help Maryland.

Houston finished this year at 19-15 overall, and 7-9 in Conference USA for 7th-place in the regular-season. They earned their way to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Conference USA Tournament, beating East Carolina, Memphis, Southern Miss, and UTEP the past four-days.

The most interesting games on Cougars schedule during the year were:

11/27: 100-93 win over #25 Oklahoma (after being down 18 points, in Alaska)
12/19: 70-64 loss to Mississippi State at home (game was tied at 64 with 40 seconds left)
1/23: 92-77 loss at Memphis (Memphis shot 61% from the floor)
2/3: 65-58 loss at UTEP (UTEP won on the boards 40-29, won despite shooting 2 of 18 from 3)
2/24: 92-75 over Memphis at home (3 Cougars scored at-least 16, and Wade had 10 assists)
3/11: 66-65 over Memphis in Tulsa (Houston won, but hit just 35% of their shots)
3/13: 81-73 over #25 UTEP (Kelvin Lewis scored 28, Houston had 20 assists)

What this shows to me, is that Houston has the athleticism to beat Top 25 National teams, and Penders showed an ability to make adjustments. He will not have seen the Terps this year, but he will have additional time to prepare.

Real Time RPI.com has Conference USA as the 11th ranked Conference overall (ACC 3rd), Houston with an RPI of 110 overall, and a Strength of Schedule of 106.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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